Forecasting trends since 1980, Mr. Gerald Celente is publisher of the Trends Journal, Founder/Director of the Trends Research Institute and author of the highly acclaimed and best selling books, Trend Tracking and Trends 2000 (Warner Books.) Using his unique perspectives on current events forming future trends, Gerald Celente developed the Globalnomic methodology, which is used to identify, track, forecast and manage trends. His on-time trend forecasts, vibrant style, articulate delivery and vivid public presence makes him a favorite of major media. The Trends Research Institute has earned its reputation as “today’s most trusted name in trends” for accurate and timely predictions. On the geopolitical and economic fronts, Celente and The Trends Research Institute are credited with predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union, the last two economic recessions, the dot-com meltdown, the 1997 Asian currency crisis, the 1987 world stock market crash, increased terrorism against America, “Crusades 2000,” the quagmire in Iraq … before war began and much more.

Gerald Celente

Daily Bell: Let’s jump right in and ask you to comment on the Seed Event taking place on Saturday, October 13, 2012 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (Seedevent.org). Tell us about it. How are you directly involved?

Gerald Celente: The Seed people contacted me after hearing my interviews from various other media. The Seed Event is very different from most of the presentations that I give. What is interesting is this is the kind of audience I relate to genuinely. The first book I ever worked on was called Natural Healing, back in 1986. I also have an honorary doctorate in complimentary medicine from the National University of Health Sciences.

Daily Bell: You identify with the audience?

Gerald Celente: The Seed Event to me is the closest to the ideal type of group that I like to speak with because, by definition, people who attend are people with open minds. My motto at the Trends Research Institute and the Trend Journal is “Think for yourself.” That was passed on to me by my father.

So going back to the upcoming Seed Event, it’s a learning experience. You go there with an open mind, wanting to obtain information that is going to improve your life, rather than going to an event so you can hear people reinforce your ideologies and reinforce what you already know. I was very much involved in the first “New Age” movement, which began in the ’70s, that went through to the mid-’90s. I lived in Reinbeck, where the Omega Institute is located. I began meditating back in the early ’80s and took Tai Chi and practiced close combat for 25 years. So I have broad interests in areas of New Age Philosophy.

The “New Age” was gaining momentum but what changed it was when Bill Clinton and Al Gore got elected. And I wrote this in my book, Trends 2000, in 1996. They were Baby Boomers, but they were no more than a continuation of the older Establishment regime and even worse. They codified what previous administrations couldn’t … like NAFTA and other legislation that took more rights away from people and exported jobs.

Daily Bell: That’s what really killed the “New Age” movement?

Gerald Celente: For a time. Now we’re going into a “New, New Age,” as I mention in the latest Trends Journal, because people are broke, people are desperate, people are searching.

Think about it … Who are the great philosophers of the day? I’ll tell you who – Jon Stewart, Colbert, Bill Maher … CLOWNS have become the philosophers … two-bit clowns. So there’s this huge vacuum and people are searching for the truth. And what Seed is … you go to this event to help find the truth and if you are awake and aware you find out the truth that is within you.

Daily Bell: You’re speaking on “The Future of Life As We Know It – Environment, Economy, Globalization.” Can you give us a bit of a summary?

Gerald Celente: Everyone is looking to the future but most people featured in the mainstream media are bringing more of the same. The future is dim and people have become walking zombies. You look at who the big producers are today in Hollywood. They are comic book freaks. Spielberg, a comic book freak. He’ll tell you. And what does he produce? Comic book crap. Batman. Comic book freaks.

The men have not grown up in America. They’re little boys. The people who want to progress, and that’s what’s going to happen, will go to the Seed Event. People there are searching for a future that’s richer than what’s now and that has integrity built into it as part of the DNA.

Daily Bell: Okay. Let’s focus a bit more on The Trends Research Institute you founded. What are the major trends occupying you right now?

Gerald Celente: Right now the major trends that are occupying me are the American election, the European debt crisis, the Syrian war and the push by America, Israel and NATO for expanding war in Syria and Iran. Time for class warfare, baby! People are losing it. They’re losing it in Greece. They’re losing it in Spain. They’re losing it in Egypt and Tunisia.

I remember when I was 18 years old. I went to see the movie, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote. It was these two guys who were terrorizing this farm family and they were overdosing on aspirin, if I remember. That’s an everyday occurrence now. How many people get blown away everyday? It’s a common occurrence now. I read about it all the time. Guy kills his ex-wife and her boyfriend and the mother. That’s today’s news. It’s happening everywhere. Nothing is going to change until the individual changes and that is what Seed Event is about. There is no leader to lead you. You’re the leader; you create your future. Why would you let anybody else do it for you?

Daily Bell: Speaking of leadership, let’s turn to politics, of which you are not a fan. Nonetheless, you are skilled in political analysis. What’s happened to Dr. Ron Paul’s campaign?

Gerald Celente: He lacked the fire and passion. I said this when it was going on, that he would be marginalized at the debates. He would talk over the audience’s head and he turned off a very large potential audience. For the record, I was asked to go meet Dr. Paul when the campaign started. I declined. Look, you can’t have it both ways. He didn’t stand up and fight hard enough to gain his position.

Just to give you a little background, I began running political campaigns in Westchester County, the most affluent county in the United States, back in the ’70s. I was the assistant to the secretary of the New York Senate and I taught American politics and campaign technology at St. John’s University. So I know a thing or two about running a campaign. Here’s the truth: He let his core constituency down. They were fighting harder than he was. He lacked the passion.

Daily Bell: Rand Paul? Is he politically ambitious?

Gerald Celente: Most politicians are ambitious. Dwight D. Eisenhower said any man or any person that wants to become president is either an egomaniac or a crazy person, or something to that effect and that no one should run for office, they should be chosen. And of all the presidents, by the way, he’s the only one I really, really respect. So to answer your question, yes, he’s ambitious. He will keep running for office. This is a continuation of high school. Same people that you couldn’t stand who wanted to be class president and ran for student council … they haven’t stopped running.

Daily Bell: What are your thoughts on President Barack Obama? Can he win?

Gerald Celente: Our forecast that we made on October 3, 2011 was yes, Obama will win. The “teleprompter president.” Politics is show business for ugly people. And Obama is a better performer. You couldn’t get a more stiff, insincere, programmed, plastic person than Mitt Romney. And Obama’s going to continue to attack Romney.

You have to understand the presidential reality show. Two candidates … well, who are the candidates? One is a guy that could have been a model for Van Heusen shirts, using Vitalis in his hair. The other is the savvy, scruffy guy from the streets who’s made good. Who is the better person to put on the presidential reality show? Van Heusen shirts are almost dead and nobody uses Vitalis any more. So even the best of the campaign strategists can’t deal with the wrong image at the wrong time and Romney is the wrong image at the wrong time.

Daily Bell: Does it matter if Obama wins?

Gerald Celente: If Obama wins, it matters because to me, by their deeds you shall know them. And Obama’s deeds terrify me. Obama overthrew Libya. Obama is instigating the war in Syria. Have you heard the words “peace plan” attached to either Israel or Palestine since Obama has been in office?

He doesn’t even make a pretense of it. To me it’s disgusting what the world is letting happen to the Palestinian people. And they are screaming and yelling what Gaddafi was doing to his people and what Assad is doing to his people!

Nobody speaks up for the atrocities against the Palestinian people. I am sick and tired of hearing the word “settlers.” This is not an old western where wagons are going across the empty plains … no, this is a land grab. And I’m allowed to say what I want against America but I’m not allowed to say what I want against Israel? I’ll say what I want to say … I’m not an anti-Semite. So where’s it going to go? It’s going to get worse because Obama is slick!

Daily Bell: Do conservatives believe in Mitt Romney?

Gerald Celente: Romney has a problem. Remember, a big part of the conservative’s block is evangelical. And this is one of the reasons we said Romney was going to lose. When you look at the data when he ran the last time, evangelicals don’t dig Mormons. They have an image issue. The other issue, of course, is Romney’s hundred millions. People don’t relate to that. Obama, as we said when we made the forecast, is going to play the born-again populist card and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Obama is a brilliant politician but calling someone a brilliant politician is like saying he’s a skillful whore.

Daily Bell: True enough. Freedom is eroding in America. Can we expect the trend to continue or accelerate?

Gerald Celente: It is accelerating. Look at the latest information coming out about the Department of Homeland Security gearing up to control public disturbances at either the Republican or Democrat conventions and also on Election Day. Look at all the surveillance equipment that’s been put in place. This is what I am saying.

He’s slippery. This is a guy that passed the National Defense Authorization Act. They can arrest a guy like me for being an enemy of the state without any judge, jury or trial, without any charges. They can have the military come and take me away. Look at what they are doing. Look how they are training the military for militia duties. They repealed, with the National Defense Authorization Act, the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which prevented the military from taking over the police duties.

All aboard! Next train to Auschwitz …

Daily Bell: Are you concerned for your own well being?

Gerald Celente: Of course. And it makes me feel sad. It breaks my heart. I bought a 1750s building. Read the beginning of the last Trends Journal … there’s a story called “Haunted by Hitler,” and how I came back from Germany in April, and I said to myself, how could the Germans, who were at the top of Western Civilization in the 1930s, let a two-bit freak destroy them? How could the Italians?

I mean, look at the Germans … Wagner, Einstein, Dietrich, Lang, Beethoven, Bach … the list goes on! How did the Italians let a little cartoon character like Mussolini destroy them? How did the Americans let Bush and Cheney destroy the nation, take them to war and put them under fear and control with Homeland Security? How could people believe in the presidential reality show again … Romney or Obama?

Daily Bell: How could they?

Gerald Celente: It’s the human spirit that allows people to do this. What is it about the human spirit that lets people give their lives up for others to run them? It goes back to the Seed Event. The SEED … You’re the seed. You better grow it.

So back to reading the latest version of Trends Journal: How can people keep letting these sociopaths and psychopaths with proven track records of failure and destruction keep leading their lives? There’s a wonderful Buddhist saying: When the student is ready the teacher appears. I always make this clear: I’ve had great teachers and a lot of them, in a lot of different areas. One teacher who was the glue for me was John Perkins at Attackproof.com. He taught me close combat. This is the real deal. Courage is especially important now. You can’t cower to power. I am not here for you to walk over me. I don’t care who the person is, I will fight to the death to preserve my life. No one is going to take it away from me. If someone is going to die, it’s not going to be me.

So back to the teacher. My belief is when the people are ready, the leaders will appear. These guys now couldn’t lead me across the street. Stop following the Pied Piper. The only salvation for the future, as I see it, is that people have to find the greatness within them and when they have the courage, dignity, respect, passion and integrity and they don’t cower to power … only then will they follow leaders who will improve civilization and not destroy it.

Daily Bell: That’s a tall order. In our last interview, you stated that women specifically were contributing to Obama’s base because they instinctively liked his style and personality. Is this still so?

Gerald Celente: Oh, yeah, more so than ever! “Oh, I like Obama … I like Obama.” Go no further. Go on Google and look at Obama’s interview on “The View.” Watch the performance and then I will ask you this question: Could you imagine Dwight D. Eisenhower going on “The View”? Never! Never! And guess what? I wouldn’t, either. I would never watch TV if I didn’t have to tune in and see what’s going on. I have to do this for my work.

Daily Bell: Update us some more on predictions. Any changes in business tactics or analysis?

Gerald Celente: Yes. This is the time to make sure that you are secure. Make sure that your money is where you want it and where you can get it and someone else isn’t holding it for you. Be prepared for the worst. In my 32 years of forecasting trends, never have I been more troubled about what’s going on in the world today and where the future is heading.

And I said this to others, talking to subscribers, and I have had premonitions before, which were borne out by events, but only once before have I ever had a premonition as powerful as this. You can go to my forecast page for the first one, but it came ten months before 9/11 when I forecasted my top trends of 2001, that Americans wouldn’t be safe at home or abroad.

On December 14, 2000, USA Today used this headline when reporting on my forecasts: “2001 Will Not be Our Year, Trend Seer Says.” It began with the warning, “Get ready America! If the Trendmeister’s prediction is on target, 2001 will be no walk in the park.” That was right before 9/11.

I feel that kind of premonition now. I feel a great unraveling. I see the very first great war of the 21st century unfolding in front of us. Riots in Spain, riots in Greece. Turmoil in Egypt and Tunisia. Riots in Bahrain and Yemen. Civil war in Syria, the Sudan, Congo and throughout Africa. Poverty is rampant and raging in South Africa. You see in China they are going back to 2009 lows. There’s no salvaging the European Union; it’s only going to get worse.

Daily Bell: Okay then, more recent predictions, please.

Gerald Celente: I still believe that gold prices are going to skyrocket and that digital money is not going to be worth the paper it’s not printed on. I am also very fearful there is going to be an economic crash. They are going to close banks and you are not going to be able to get your money out. It’s happening in Europe now. It was one of the top trends we wrote about in 2012, bank holidays. I am concerned about a collapse. I am concerned about war. I am concerned about terror, false-flag or real.

Daily Bell: Give us an update on the euro and the European Union.

Gerald Celente: There’s no salvaging it. It’s only around ten years old and it has all these problems. But the big news is that what they are doing is they are trying to centralize power even more by establishing a European Central Bank that subjugates all of the banks and sovereignty of all the nations that belong to the Eurozone. That’s the real story. So again, the merger of state and corporate powers … more fascism for Europe. They have had it before and you are seeing it again. Rather than Hitler and Mussolini, it’s Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. How much more proof do people need? This haunts me, that people aren’t getting it.

Daily Bell: Technocracy? How is that working out in Greece and Italy?

Gerald Celente: They are bankers and it’s working perfectly for the banks. They are stealing it from the people and giving it to the banks. It’s perfect. It’s working out just the way they want it.

Daily Bell: The “China Miracle”?

Gerald Celente: In 1996 I wrote that no matter how China develops, they have 1.2 billion people and a million problems. If Europe and America don’t buy, the Chinese don’t make. If they stop producing, you are going to see civil unrest in China that will make what’s happening in Europe pale in comparison.

Daily Bell: What about Argentina and its oil takeover and rolling devaluation? Is that affecting all of South America?

Gerald Celente: Well, it’s bigger than that. We’re facing the first great World War of the 21st century. We’ll end up with another Hitler, another Mussolini, another Tojo. It all comes down to greed and power; that’s all it ever is. The money junkies have destroyed the world. They did it in the 1920s, and they are still in control.

Daily Bell: Go back to the LIBOR scandal. Our take was that it was a phony scandal. Can you describe it?

Gerald Celente: Oh, no, it’s not phony at all; it’s real. They are rigging the game. They rig the game to make their balance sheets look better; they rig the game so they can play the derivatives market. They rigged the game to cover up how big the panic of ’08 was. No, to me it’s a totally rigged game.

Daily Bell: Don’t central banks fix the price of money every hour of every day?

Gerald Celente: Yes, but so does LIBOR and they have been doing that for 25 years. This goes very deep. It shows you control that so few have. That to me is the story.

Daily Bell: Bloomberg is starting a LIBOR in Qatar, the QIBOR. Could that have anything to do with the current scandal?

Gerald Celente: Let’s look at Qatar. Who owns Al Jazeera? … Qatar. Who is one of the prime suppliers of munitions and instigating the revolution in both Libya and Syria? … Qatar. They’re all in the “club,” the whole Arab League. Qatar is very powerful for a little country … and they own Al Jazeera. So they get to spread the propaganda and they get to arm the people to overthrow city governments.

Daily Bell: How are your finances after the MF Global debacle?

Gerald Celente: I was hurt by it. Nobody likes having their money stolen but, again, when you tie it all back together, well … the whole thing is rigged.

Daily Bell: Thoughts on the CFTC?

Gerald Celente: What CFTC?! Who’s the head of it? Gary Genzler, who worked under “John the Slime” Corzine and the Goldman Sachs gang! It’s the money mafia. That’s all it is.

Daily Bell: You are still buying local, being local and living locally?

Gerald Celente: All the time … it’s the only way! We have great farmers’ markets here. Repatriate, repatriate … that’s my motto. Bring it back home. We have a great community here in uptown Kingston. There are a number of very successful businesses and I know the people. We are all of the mentality of wanting to see each other do great. There’s not a lot of little minds here, another one of my father’s sayings.

Daily Bell: How about the Internet and what we call the Internet Reformation? Is the exposure of all this corruption helping?

Gerald Celente: Yes. I mentioned my career in politics. In all my life I have never experienced an election year where so many people cared so little who was going to get elected president. And it’s because it’s becoming so transparent what a fraud it all is. I have to give you this quote. A reader sent it to me; it’s a great one. Ready?

“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” − Mark Twain.

When I mentioned before about America and the world not having a philosophy, look up the meaning of philosophy. It’s the study of general and fundamental problems such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, value, reason, mind. If you put those words together it spells s-e-e-d. And that is what the event is about. It’s about philosophy and what else is on this planet.

Daily Bell: Any final thoughts? Can you give us a few more predictions for 2012? You spoke of economic martial law last time.

Gerald Celente: Well, the economic martial law is already in place and it’s going to expand around the world. I am most concerned about a major geo-political event and an economic crisis. There is no solving the European debt crisis. The only thing they can keep doing is pumping more money into it … but the Ponzi scheme is about to end.

What other schemes-undreamt-of they will come up with next, no one knows. But we are facing a timeline analogous to the Crash of ’29 and the start of World War II. The only thing that will stop a rerun is the human spirit … but the human spirit needs a lot of work! It’s going to take a lot of hard work to reverse this thing …

Daily Bell: Thank you for speaking out. You are one of the courageous few.